Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov, a player for Team Spirit Dota 2, has summarized the team`s performance in the grand final of ESL One Raleigh 2025. He analyzed the match against PARIVISION in the team`s final vlog from the tournament.
We lost to PARIVISION 1:3 on maps. Looking at the series, we didn`t quite manage to adapt well in key moments. Their draft bans were a bit unexpected and caught us off guard. We didn`t properly evaluate which heroes we should contest. For example, we tried to play with Terrorblade and Medusa like before, but it didn`t work well because PARIVISION simply picked two strong supports and banned many of our comfortable support heroes. This lack of practice with other heroes, combined with the meta where they contested the strongest heroes and banned ours, left us without good options. They also consistently picked Tiny and Sand King. We even tried to trade picks in the second game, but their supports were so strong that they controlled any area, and any hero would die instantly. Additionally, they played their strong lanes slightly better in the early game, my game suffered a lot, and overall, it didn`t go well. The first two maps were tough.
In the third map, the draft order changed, and many supports were banned. We rethought our approach during the series and focused on picking strong supports and initiation. We ended up with a decent draft, not much weaker than theirs, maybe even slightly stronger – and we deservedly won. In the fourth map, they picked a strong support, and we tried to counter with Warlock, also a strong support. However, at some point, we couldn`t properly decide who to pick next and missed out on Bristleback, although we discussed it. Even if we had picked him 13th, it`s not certain we could have drafted correctly. Overall, there were many moments where we tried to improvise, but their ideas just worked better.
[Question: `Were the key mistakes only in the draft?`] We played decently, but PARIVISION managed to surprise us a bit, they prepared slightly better. Basically, it`s just another best-of-5 series where each team prepares. Some might prepare better, some worse, and some adapt better during the match. This time, they just did it better.
[Question: `How do you rate the result at the tournament?`] Satisfactory. Of course, we wanted to win, and we were capable of it, but sometimes someone is just slightly better prepared. Like when we won the last The International, we were just better prepared in terms of ideas and drafts, and our opponents couldn`t adapt, as far as I remember. This time, PARIVISION was slightly better in that aspect.
Naidenov also mentioned what Spirit needs to improve to defeat their opponents next time.
[Art1st: `We will definitely work on our mistakes.`] Well, what else to do? We`ve already discussed some things, and made some conclusions. The key thing, I think, is that we just need to have a few more answers to certain heroes and more confidence in them.
[Art1st: `Well, we`ll fix it before TI and Riyadh Masters.`] Of course. There will definitely be some patch updates by then. There will surely be a micro-patch at least.
ESL One Raleigh 2025 took place in the USA from April 7th to 13th. 12 teams competed at the tournament. The event had a prize pool of one million dollars and 27,920 ESL Pro Tour points. In the final, Team Spirit lost to PARIVISION with a score of 1:3.
Finley Holt